Sen. Cathy Giessel said she does not know why the company is changing its name or why it is a secret, only that it has filed paperwork with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
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The head of the state Division of Elections, who is supervised by Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom, refused Wednesday to release the legal advice provided to her by the Department of Law that led her to reveal private information on all Alaska voters to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Asked by Sen. Bill Wielechowski if she would release the legal advice from state lawyers, Elections Director Carol Beecher did not want to respond.
“I will be conferring with the Department of Law in regard to your question,” Beecher said.
Wielechowski asked why she had to talk to the Department of Law when the decision on releasing the information is entirely up to her.
Legally, the decision is entirely up to her. There is no basis for claiming it should remain secret or for her excessive hemming and hawing.
Read MoreThere was no compelling legal argument that led the Dunleavy administration to divulge private information about all Alaska voters to the Department of Justice for Donald Trump’s campaign to interfere with the 2026 elections.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy, Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom and temporary Attorney General Stephen Cox wanted to just say yes to the Trump administration, which is what they did. Under a Democratic president they would have attacked the request as federal overreach.
Read MoreOne of the big problems with the Dunleavy administration decision to give private information on every Alaska voter to the Department of Justice is that the Trump administration has failed to take proper preparations to protect the data.
The Trump administration is trying to sweep up information on all voters in every state in advance of the 2026 elections. Most states have refused to go along with the transfer of private information that is not available to those who check voter rolls. But Alaska agreed to hand over the data without security guarantees.
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Under state law a voter’s age, Social Security number, driver’s license number, identification number, place of birth and signature are confidential.
Other states and at least three federal courts have recognized that the federal government does not have a right to such information. But not Alaska. The Dunleavy administration folded.
The Trump administration has now sued 29 states, all but 5 led by Democrats, for refusing to hand over private voter data.
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The canned responses by Sens. Lisa Murkowski, Dan Sullivan and Rep. Nick Begich the Third to the new surprise war against Iran are predictably superficial, designed to avoid even asking the real questions about why this is being done now, what the risks are for the U.S. and the world, why this is justified and what comes next.
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If Alaska utilities trust Frank Richards, the president of the Alaska Gasline Development Corporation, they will abandon all costly plans to import natural gas because he is confident that a gas pipeline will be built.
“I put my confidence level at 98 percent,” Richards told the Senate Resources Committee this past week.
So it’s a sure thing. Someone should have asked if he’d be willing to bet his paycheck on that prediction. Richards is again at the top of the pay scale in state government, earning a total of $527,764 last year.
Read MoreThe Alaska Gasline Development Corporation says it cannot reveal the governance details of the entity it set up to pursue the gas line because it is a minority partner with 25 percent of the project, while Glenfarne owns 75 percent.
Sen. Cathy Giessel asked AGDC to request Glenfarne to provide the Legislature with redacted versions of its agreements with AGDC.
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The University of Alaska Board of Regents has adopted a plan to prevent the general public from knowing the identities of finalists for the UA presidency.
This means that many people with an interest in the future of Alaska’s university will be prohibited from knowing anything about the three-to-five finalists the presidential search committee plans to name in April.
Read MoreLt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom claims that it is a “disservice to Alaskans” to assert that she has done anything wrong, as I did here.
Dahlstrom also claims she did not violate the privacy of every Alaska voter.
She’s not telling the truth about what she did or the invasion of privacy that occurred with her blessing.
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